CNHEDhttps://www.cnhed.org
The Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development leads nonprofit community development organizations in ensuring that residents with low and moderate incomes have housing and economic opportunities in neighborhoods throughout the District of Columbia.Thu, 17 Aug 2017 14:25:05 -0400en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8Council Votes on FY18 Budgethttps://www.cnhed.org/news/2017/06/council-votes-on-fy18-budget/
Thu, 01 Jun 2017 16:49:18 +0000https://www.cnhed.org/?p=5154Thank you for your hard work. On Tuesday, May 30, the DC Council had its first vote on the FY 2018 budget.

The budgets proposed by both the Mayor and DC Council maintained, because of your efforts, some key investments in affordable housing and community economic development that are instrumental to the health of the District. In other cases, the Council fell short of our recommendations.Though we did not see increases in every single one of CNHED’s priority areas, our voice commanded attention.

Click here for highlights of the affordable housing and economic development programs in the budget that were passed by the DC Council on the first vote.

]]>Community Development Week 2016https://www.cnhed.org/news/2016/10/community-development-week-2016/
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 18:34:34 +0000https://www.cnhed.org/?p=4941CNHED is honored to have inaugurated Community Development Week, October 10 -14, 2016 highlighting the activities and impact of our member organizations in creating a District of Columbia in which all residents can thrive. The week’s activities illuminated the community development field’s role in creating and preserving affordable housing; assisting the creation, health and expansion of small business; creating and financing community economic development projects; energizing commercial corridors; and creating opportunities to reap increased income and improved quality of life.

Groundbreaking for 12 new affordable townhomes in Ivy City by Habitat for Humanity and Level 2 Development, with speakers Mayor Bowser, Councilmembers Bonds and McDuffie; other dignitaries.

Ribbon cutting of Community Preservation and Development Corporation’s (CPDC) Edgewood Commons I, where more than 200 came out to celebrate the completion of a four-phase, five-year revitalization effort, exceeding $50 million, at the center of CPDC’s community development strategy for the neighborhood.

Rehab groundbreaking of 60 affordable apartment units by MANNA, Inc. revitalizing two buildings with funds from the Housing Production Trust Fund, allowing residents to continue living in the District.

The District of Columbia, though its Interagency Council on Homelessness’ Homeward DC plan, has committed to making homelessness a “rare, brief, and nonrecurring experience” by 2020 and ending chronic homelessness among individuals and families by the end of 2017. CNHED strongly supports these goals, while also advocating that the District maintain broad support for a Continuum of Housing for all residents, with a focus on the most vulnerable.

“This policy brief is an extension of CNHED’s report An Affordable Continuum of Housing . . . Key to a Better City, which formed the basis of our incredibly successful Housing For All Campaign,” said Steve Glaude, President & CEO of CNHED. “In this new policy brief, we turn focused attention to the practices and policies to end homelessness, all in the context of the broader Continuum of Housing.” A copy of that report can be found here.

CNHED believes that an ample supply and array of solutions is needed to end chronic homelessness and to sustain a continuum of housing that meets the needs of the most economically vulnerable residents of the District. CNHED supports Housing First, as well as other evidence-based models that demonstrate successful outcomes for their residents. CNHED believes there should be, including transitional housing for special populations and recovery housing for those who choose this option.

The policy brief was produced through a deliberative process involving nearly two dozen CNHED members and allied organizations who are active in providing housing for persons who are currently experiencing homelessness, at risk of homelessness, and/or formerly experienced homelessness.

As Jim Knight, Executive Director and President of Jubilee Housing, and Co-chair of CNHED’s Housing Committee, stated “One of the things we at CNHED do best is gather practitioners’ input and build consensus around best practices, said “I think we’ve done that for housing and supports for people exiting homelessness. In concert with my Housing Committee Co-chair Rosanne Look, MANNA, Inc., the board and members of CNHED, we look forward to working with our partners to implement key recommendations from the paper.”

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The Coalition for Nonprofit Housing & Economic Development (CNHED) fosters just and equitable community development solutions that address the needs and aspirations of low- and moderate-income District residents by convening, advocating, and educating diverse stakeholders. More information about CNHED and its programs is available at www.cnhed.org. You can also follow CNHED on Twitter @cnhed, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cnhed.

]]>DC Small Biz TakeOver 2016https://www.cnhed.org/blog/2016/04/dc-small-biz-takeover-2016/
Thu, 21 Apr 2016 21:16:35 +0000https://www.cnhed.org/?p=4470Did you know that May 1-7, 2016 is National Small Business Week? The Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development (CNHED) is organizing and promoting events and activities in celebration of the District’s small business community for DC’s own DC Small Biz TakeOver 2016!

There are a host of events and activities designed specifically for start-up and existing businesses throughout the entire week. We’re kicking off the week’s events by commemorating the one-year anniversary of CNHED’s Small Business Policy Project (SBPP) launch of DCSmallBizLoans.com, an online lending platform. We’re also sharing information about our second website, DCSmallBizHelp.com which is an online community where small businesses can find the help they need.

Whether you’re a small business, a supporter, or an organization providing assistance to small business, you can join in the week’s coordinated activities! Check out the activities below to learn more:

Overview of the week’s events:

Monday, May 2DC Small Biz Resource Mini-Clinic Pop-Ups. Stop by and receive free technical assistance and other resources for your small business. Free giveaways, music, and fun while supplies last! Three locations:

Destination Congress Heights Ribbon-cutting for their new Main Streets program
9:30 am – 10:30 am at 3110 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. with Mayor Bowser, Councilmember May and the Office of Planning.

Tuesday, May 3

POWER UP DC Forum. Join us, DC Health Link & other partners at our FREE small business forum: POWER UP DC 2016 for a range of business-focused workshops; get new information about small business marketplace provisions of the Affordable Care Act; come network, build business relationships and more.

Wednesday, May 4

CNHED’s Happy Hour. Come out to CNHED’s happy hour for great company and brews and bites half off from 5:00 – 7:00 pm.

Thursday, May 5

DCRA Business Matchmaking Event. Get one-on-one business matchmaking assistance from representatives of the from 4 pm – 7pm

We’re expecting some major media attention this week, so be sure to send us information about your events – we want to highlight your work! You will soon receive a communications packet that includes sample tweets, Facebook posts, and more to help you spread the word.

Promote our organizations’ events

Planning a grand opening or customer appreciation day? Hosting a special training or other event? Throughout the week, we’ll be promoting your events, so whatever it is, send us the details and we’ll include it in our overall marketing. Here are a few events we know about:

We’re expecting some major media attention this week, so be sure to send us information about your events – we want to highlight your work! You will soon receive a communications packet that includes sample tweets, Facebook posts, and more to help you spread the word.

Volunteer at one of the Mini-Clinics

Give your organization exposure and reach more clients at one of the DC Small Biz Resource Mini-Clinic Pop-Ups!

Promote our organizations’ events

Planning a grand opening or customer appreciation day? Hosting a special training or other event? Throughout the week, we’ll be promoting your events, so whatever it is, send us the details and we’ll include it in our overall marketing. Here are a few events we know about:

Everyone deserves a safe and affordable place to call home and no one should be homeless for years. Fortunately, the Mayor and DC Council have made a promise to ensure affordable housing, end chronic homelessness, and build a DC where all residents thrive. To fulfill these promises, several key investments are needed in the FY 17 budget. Join us at the Fulfill the Promise rally!

Commit at least $100 million a year to the Housing Production Trust Fund.

The Housing Production Trust Fund is crucial to creating and preserving affordable housing for District residents. The Trust Fund plays a key role in the preservation of existing affordable housing by enabling tenants to purchase their buildings and preserve them as affordable. It also helps to build new affordable housing for rent or purchase and creates new permanent supportive housing units to end chronic homelessness.

End chronic homelessness by 2017 and ensure more housing options for families.

We support Homeward DC, the District’s plan to end all homelessness, including the goal to end chronic homelessness by 2017. Approximately 2,000 new units of housing are needed to end chronic homelessness for individuals. We urge elected officials to meet at least half of the need in FY 17, and the remainder in FY 18. In particular we recommend:

Investing $8.6 million in Permanent SupportiveHousing and $6.8 million in Targeted Affordable Housing for individuals in FY17.

Investing $6.2 million in Permanent Supportive Housing and $4 million in Targeted Affordable Housing for families in FY17.

Continuing the production of Permanent Supportive Housing and Targeted Affordable Housing for individuals and families through the Consolidated Request for Proposals to ensure a long-term stock of housing that meets the needs of DC’s homeless population.

Fund the Home Purchase Assistance Program (HPAP) at a level of $13.2 million for a robust first-time homeownership program.

Downpayment assistance is a critical tool to help first-time buyers purchase homes in the District. This increase of approximately $4 million would allow DHCD to fund 240 loans, the agency’s goal for FY16, with an increased award amount.

Commit an additional $5 million to the Tenant-Based Local Rent Supplement Program (LRSP) to serve new families on the waiting list for affordable housing.

Tens of thousands of families are waiting for an affordable housing voucher allowing them to have housing security and relieve their high housing cost burden. Continued investments in the tenant-based LRSP are critical to provide these families with affordable housing options.

Commit an additional $3.6 million to the Local Rent Supplement Program (LRSP) to increase the production of housing for residents and serve 300 extremely low-income households.

LRSP is crucial to the production of rental housing for extremely low income families and individuals in the District. This funding is needed to meet the goals of the Homeward DC plan by supporting the production of Permanent Supportive Housing in new developments, including the 5% required in all DHCD-funded projects. It is also needed to ensure the Housing Production Trust Fund meets its statutory requirements to use 40% of the Trust Fund at 0-30% AMI to serve individuals and families with extremely low incomes.

The District boasts the nation’s strongest rent stabilization laws, but significant loopholes are undermining the laws’ goals of preserving affordable housing and protecting vulnerable tenants. Reforms to the rent control law must:

Protect seniors and people with disabilities from extreme rent increases

Prohibit the selective or delayed implementation of approved rent increases in petitions

Clarify the definition of “substantial rehabilitation”

]]>DCSmallBizHelp Launchedhttps://www.cnhed.org/news/2015/12/dcsmallbizhelp-launched/
Fri, 04 Dec 2015 09:15:25 +0000https://www.cnhed.org/?p=4270On Friday, December 4, 2015, the Small Business Policy Project (SBPP) launchedDCSmallBizHelp, featuring a network of fifteen local organizations that provide an expansive array of assistance for small businesses in the District of Columbia. Read more.

Washington, D.C. – On Friday, December 4, 2015, the Small Business Policy Project (SBPP) launchedDCSmallBizHelp [http://DCSmallBizHelp.cnhed.org/], featuring a network of fifteen local organizations that provide an expansive array of assistance for small businesses in the District of Columbia.

DCSmallBizHelp gives local small business owners and entrepreneurs easy access to the myriad of resources available to plan, start, and grow a small business in the District. Fifteen small business technical assistance (TA) providers working in the District offer their services through this centralized website. Small businesses can browse the detailed profiles of each of the TA providers, or search for precisely the type of assistance they need and get a list of organizations offering that service. The site also features small business owners who have accessed these services and put them to use in starting and growing their businesses.

“The District of Columbia is committed to finding innovative ways to support local businesses,” says Ana Harvey, Director of Department of Small and Local Business Development. “The DCSmallBizHelpwebsite does just that by making it easier for small businesses to access the assistance they need to thrive.”

The concept for DCSmallBizHelp grew out of the Small Business Policy Project (SBPP), a comprehensive initiative to improve the environment for small business success in the District of Columbia with funding provided by Citi Community Development. The SBPP is now working to implement the more than 60+ recommendations they devised to make it easier for small business to flourish in DC.

“We are proud to work with the leaders of the Small Business Policy Project to give small business owners and entrepreneurs in the District of Columbia more opportunities to expand and thrive,” said Diana Meyer, Metro Washington Marketplace Manager, Citi Community Development. “Through this innovative initiative, we are bringing together stakeholders from across sectors to support entrepreneurs on the road to success.”

The launch event was held at the DC Department of Small and Local Business Development (DSLBD) with SBPP co-convener Coalition for Nonprofit Housing & Economic Development (CNHED). “Helping small businesses succeed is critical to helping our District residents and communities succeed,” says Stephen Glaude, Executive Director of CNHED. “ “With DCSmallBizHelp, entrepreneurs can now go to one central place to find the assistance they need – everything from creating business plans to effective marketing and accessing capital. This network of TA providers, particularly combined with our online lending platform DCSmallBizLoans.com will help small businesses create jobs, generating income for DC residents and revenue for the District.”

At CNHED’s Housing For All Campaign, we know how sweet a home can be. A home is a special place. It may hold sweet memories or be a place that gives you sweet dreams.

Submit your essay, poem, or story that tells us what makes a home so sweet, and you could be a winner! Submissions are due Friday, January 8. We encourage everyone young and old to share their stories as we work to win Housing For All in DC. See Contest Guidelines below.

Prompt: Tell us what makes a home “Home Sweet Home.” It could be where you live now, where you once lived, or where you hope to live.

Submissions should be no more than 500 words- essay, story or poetry accepted.

Submissions are due January 8, 2016.

Submissions and questions should be directed to Elizabeth Falcon: housingforall@cnhed.org

Authors should state if they are applying in the adult or youth category. (Authors over 18 should submit in the “adult” category).

Authors who have won in previous years are not eligible to win again.

Winners will be informed by January 15, 2016.

Winners will be recognized at the Housing For All Rally in February – details will be announced to all participants. All are welcome to attend. The first place winner in each category will be asked to read their winning submission.

Any submissions become the property of CNHED. Winning entries will be published on our blog www.cnhed.org/housing-for-all-campaign/blog. All publications will credit the author.

Congress is on a collision course with the federal budget unless they lift Sequester spending caps. Members of Congress returned to DC this week to craft a budget deal. These are a few of the cuts on the table:

Empty the National Housing Trust Fund in 2016 and forever after (House bill).

Effectively eliminate the HOME program with a 93% funding cut (Senate bill).

Tell Congress how devastating Sequester spending cuts are to low-income children, families, seniors and veterans in the communities you serve. Join advocates from across the U.S. in flooding Congress with calls September 15-16. Share this email with colleagues, partners and everyone you know who cares about saving housing and community development programs.

]]>CNHED speaks out for bipartisan budget deal to end sequestrationhttps://www.cnhed.org/news/2015/09/cnhed-speaks-out-for-bipartisan-budget-deal-to-end-sequestration/
Mon, 14 Sep 2015 17:45:53 +0000https://www.cnhed.org/?p=4056On Thursday, September 10, 2015, CNHED’s Stephen Glaude gave remarks at a press conference and rally sponsored by NDD United, with Reps. Chris Van Hollen (MD-08), Rosa DeLauro (CT-03), and Barbara Lee (CA-13), and others calling for Congress to raise the spending caps and end sequestration through a bipartisan budget deal before the October 1 deadline. See photos from the event.

CNHED was one of more than 2,500 groups nationally that signed onto a letter calling on Congress to raise the sequester spending caps. The letter was coordinated by NDD United, a broad network of organizations representing non-defense discretionary (NDD) programs. These programs include veterans affairs, medical and scientific research; education and job training; infrastructure; public safety and law enforcement; public health; weather monitoring and environmental protection; international relations; natural and cultural resources; and housing and social services.

One-third of the organizations that signed are from the community development sector, many of whom will be deeply affected by cuts to FY16 HUD funding should the sequester caps remain in place.

“With sequestration relief expiring in fiscal year 2016 and appropriations bills now being written to the sequestered spending caps, we are seeing the difficult tradeoffs necessitated by woefully inadequate and historically low levels of spending after years of deficit reduction. In fact, current NDD funding is the lowest level on record dating back to the Eisenhower administration, relative to the size of the economy,” the letter states.

CNHED is honored to have been asked by our partner, the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), to represent the community development sector at the rally and press conference. Read the NLIHC’s statement. A portion is below:

Steve Glaude, Executive Director of the Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development in Washington, DC, an NLIHC state coalition partner, also spoke at the rally. “Given the loss of critical funding DC suffered after the 2013 sequester cuts, my organization was quick to sign onto the letter being delivered today to Capitol Hill urging Congress to avoid painful and unnecessary cuts in the upcoming fiscal year,” Mr. Glaude said.

“Today, we ask Congress to Raise the Caps,” Mr. Glaude said. “Raise the caps so the House’s housing appropriations bill, which is written under the spending caps’ limits, does not force 280 of DC’s lowest income families to leave the Section 8 rental assistance voucher program. Raise the caps so the Senate committee’s housing appropriations bill, which also follows the caps’ limits, does not reduce DC’s HOME program funding from $3.7 million to $240,000 next year. Raise the caps so the House’s housing funding bill, which would empty funds from the National Housing Trust Fund, is not enacted into law.”